All About Everything

Shuttle astronaut Wendy Lawrence talks spacesuits, Mir and learning Russian in 'Virtual Astronaut' webcast Friday

In October, if all goes to plan, the International Space Station (ISS) will celebrate 20 years of continuous human presence. That's two decades, 63 expeditions, and dozens of astronauts and cosmonauts who lived and worked on board the orbiting lab nonstop.

Earth life may have traveled to Venus aboard sky-skimming asteroid

If there is indeed life on Venus, it may have come from Earth — aboard an asteroid that scooped up microbes high in our skies, a new study suggests. Advertisement. Last week, researchers announced the detection of the potential biosignature gas phosphine ...

Rosetta's 'rubber ducky' comet has ultraviolet auroras

Planets aren't the only things in the solar system with auroras. Comets can have them too, data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta mission has revealed. While looking at data from Rosetta, researchers found evidence of ultraviolet auroras at ...

'Giant impact' theory of moon's formation gets another boost

Scientists have found fresh evidence in lunar rocks showing that the moon was likely formed after a Mars-sized planet crashed into the proto-Earth more than 4 billion years ago. A NASA-led team examined moon rocks brought back to Earth by Apollo ...

SpaceX pops Starship tank on purpose in explosive pressure test

SpaceX just popped another Starship test tank. Advertisement. The Starship SN7.1 tank was destroyed on purpose Tuesday night (Sept. 22) at SpaceX's South Texas facilities, during a pressure test designed to take the stainless-steel hardware to its bursting ...

Asteroid or space junk? Approaching object might become Earth's mini-moon

EarthSky

EarthSky

An approaching space object – labeled 2020 SO – is about to briefly become a new "mini-moon" for Earth, captured by our planet's more powerful gravity. Orbit models show that both the low speed and trajectory of the approaching object, should cause Earth ...

White graphene exhibits high defect tolerance and elasticity

Because of their unique physical, chemical, electrical and optical properties, two-dimensional (2-D) materials have attracted tremendous attention in the past decades. After revealing the realistic strength and stretchability of graphene, nicknamed "black gold," ...

The return of the spin echo

A research team from Garching and Vienna discovered a remarkable echo effect that offers exciting new possibilities for working with quantum information. Small particles can have an angular momentum that points in a certain direction—the spin. This spin ...

Scientists achieve higher precision weak force measurement between protons, neutrons

Through a one-of-a-kind experiment at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, nuclear physicists have precisely measured the weak interaction between protons and neutrons. The result quantifies the weak force theory as predicted by the ...

Metal wires of carbon complete toolbox for carbon-based computers

Transistors based on carbon rather than silicon could potentially boost computers' speed and cut their power consumption more than a thousandfold—think of a mobile phone that holds its charge for months—but the set of tools needed to build working ...